evidence: Editor’s note: President Donald Trump named Vice President Mike Pence to lead the nation’s response to the novel coronavirus on Feb. 26. In light of that news, KHN is highlighting this recent story that delved into how Pence handled an HIV outbreak when he was governor of Indiana — and how the country has failed to heed the public health lessons learned there. [...] All this threatens to stall the administration’s HIV goals, which are championed by two prominent figures who responded to Austin’s outbreak: Indiana’s former governor Vice President Mike Pence and the former state health commissioner, Dr. Jerome Adams, now the U.S. surgeon general. [...] The initial response was slow. Pence, then governor, opposed syringe exchange programs, which were illegal in Indiana. It took him 29 days after the outbreak was announced to sign an executive order allowing a state-supervised syringe program. By then, HIV cases had risen to 79.