evidence: Pence described his response to the outbreak of HIV in Scott County: "the state of Indiana did not allow for providing a needle exchange to citizens. But the CDC came in and made a recommendation. And I declared a public health emergency. And made for 30 days a needle exchange available in the state of Indiana. And I’m proud to say that every one of those patients was treated. We ended the spread of the HIV/AIDS virus in that community." It’s true that Pence faced an HIV outbreak while he was the governor, and that he eventually allowed a needle exchange. But his revisionist history misrepresents his role in what transpired in the small town of Austin, Indiana five years ago, where over 200 people were infected with HIV. What happened is that Pence failed to act in response to increasingly urgent signs of a significant HIV outbreak, and he delayed implementation of vital public health measures. Among public health experts, the Indiana outbreak is considered a failure of state response, and an example of how poor political leadership can actually make a crisis worse. [...] Pence’s handling of the Indiana HIV outbreak is a case study in mismanagement of a public health crisis. His inaction as governor gave Austin, Indiana with a population of around 4,200, a higher HIV incidence than "any country in sub-Saharan Africa," said Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the CDC.