evidence: "As Governor of Indiana, an HIV/AIDS epidemic flourished until he allowed public health — not ideology — to direct policy & response," tweeted Leana Wen, the past head of Planned Parenthood who now teaches at George Washington School of Medicine and Health Sciences. "I hope he now follows the guidance of the exceptional career public health leaders @CDCgov & in the admin." [...] The biggest red flag for critics was Pence's handling of the largest HIV outbreak in state history. Many feel Pence was slow to respond and ignored public health evidence and that his policies were too-little-too-late, all of which they believe, enabled the 2015 outbreak linked to the injection of oral painkillers to flourish in southern Indiana. [...] When the case was confirmed, Pence issued a statement saying "we have deployed the full resources of the Indiana State Department of Health to engage in tracking this case, assessing the risk to the public and working to prevent the spread of this virus."