Whistleblower
A timeline of the media spectacle
Whistleblower: A Media Spectacle
For three years I’ve lived my life one viral news story after the next.
2020
On May 19, 2020, I was fired from my job with the Florida Department of Health, where I was leading the COVID-19 public data and surveillance project since the start of the pandemic.
The reason for my termination became the subject of major news investigations and lawsuits – a still-ongoing melodrama driven by politics and the destructive nature of social media.
The official letter I received stated no reason for my termination, but I asked who made the decision and was told it was the Deputy Secretary - the very person I was filing the whistleblower complaint against.
The decision was not that of my immediate supervisor or even his immediate supervisor, but of the politically-appointed bureaucrat who had just weeks prior asked me to manipulate the publicly-available data I managed about the pandemic.
The state offered me a settlement if I agreed to resign and not sue them for ret…
