According to state officials, Jones, a former Florida Department of Health (DOH) data scientist, was fired for "insubordination," but she claims she was dismissed for refusing to alter official Covid-19 data to make reopening the state more palatable for the public at the behest of Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, a close ally of U.S. President Donald Trump. 

After her firing, Jones, the former geographic information system manager for the Florida DOH, created her own information dashboard and gained a large public following. Her public recognition immediately became political – some see her as a hero, others as having her own political agenda. She was publicly criticized by Governor DeSantis as not being a "real" data scientist, a style not so dissimilar from how President Trump has handled whistleblowers in his administration.