Investigation finds 'whistleblower's' claims that Ron DeSantis covered up COVID deaths are 'unsubstantiated'

One of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' most vocal critics made “unsubstantiated” claims that state health officials fired her because she refused to present manipulated COVID-19 data online, according to the results of an investigation by the state's inspector general, NBC News reports.

"The 27-page report from the Florida Department of Health’s Office of Inspector General said it found 'insufficient evidence' to support Rebekah Jones' accusations that she was asked to falsify Covid positivity rates or misrepresent them on the state’s dashboard she helped design," NBC News' report stated. "The report also 'exonerated' officials accused by Jones of wrongdoing because they removed a data section from the website to ensure that private individual health information was not released publicly."

The report suggests Jones did not understand public health policy or epidemiological data and did not have high-level access to information as she had claimed. The report, however, did not examine one of Jones' most explosive claims -- that DeSantis and the state of Florida were covering up deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic. But as NBC News points out, there's no evidence for that claim either.

Jones used the Twitter fame she garnered by making the claims to raise money, and is now a Democratic congressional candidate challenging Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz.

Read the full report over at NBC News.