--- title: Ebola Vaccine Delayed By Budget Cuts, NIH Director Says description: Francis Collins said researchers could be “a year or two ahead of where we are” on Ebola vaccine canonical: https://time.com/3501744/ebola-vaccine-nih/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-13T12:00:15.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T10:44:27.225Z article:section: Health og:title: Ebola Vaccine Delayed By Budget Cuts, NIH Director Says og:description: Francis Collins said researchers could be “a year or two ahead of where we are” on Ebola vaccine og:url: https://time.com/3501744/ebola-vaccine-nih/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3d5d92fbf8d161d9/69876042cd68482e190970bc/francis-collins-nih-ebola-2.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: NIH Director Francis Collins og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ebola Vaccine Delayed By Budget Cuts, NIH Director Says twitter:description: Francis Collins said researchers could be “a year or two ahead of where we are” on Ebola vaccine twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3d5d92fbf8d161d9/69876042cd68482e190970bc/francis-collins-nih-ebola-2.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Funding Cuts Delayed Ebola Vaccine, U.S. Official Says by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Oct 13, 2014 12:00 PM UTC  National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins speaks during an interview in Washington on April 11, 2014. National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins speaks during an interview in Washington on April 11, 2014.Bloomberg/Getty Images by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Oct 13, 2014 12:00 PM UTC Researchers might have developed an Ebola vaccine in time to stem the current outbreak if it weren’t for budget cuts, a top federal health official [said in a new interview](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/12/ebola-vaccine%5Fn%5F5974148.html). Francis Collins, the head of the National Institutes of Health, said the agency has been working on Ebola vaccines since 2001\. “It’s not like we suddenly woke up and thought, ‘Oh my gosh, we should have something ready here,'” Collins told the _Huffington Post_. “Frankly, if we had not gone through our 10-year slide in research support, we probably would have had a vaccine in time for this that would’ve gone through clinical trials and would have been ready.” Collins said researchers and doctors would likely have been “a year or two ahead of where we are” had research funding stayed on track. His comments come as officials are dealing with the [second case](https://time.com/3499896/ebola-texas-health-worker-positive/) of the deadly disease to be diagnosed in the United States The death toll from the outbreak, which has ravaged countries in West Africa, recently [surpassed 4,000](http://time.com/3490776/ebola-outbreak-death-toll-west-africa/). \[[_Huffington Post_](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/12/ebola-vaccine%5Fn%5F5974148.html)\] _Read next:_ [_5 Ways U.S. Hospitals Need to Get Ready For Ebola_](http://time.com/3500231/5-ways-u-s-hospitals-need-to-get-ready-for-ebola/?xid=time%5Freadnext) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3501744/ebola-vaccine-nih/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3501744/ebola-vaccine-nih/"},"headline":"Funding Cuts Delayed Ebola Vaccine, U.S. Official Says","datePublished":"2014-10-13T12:00:15.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T10:44:27.225Z","description":"Francis Collins said researchers could be “a year or two ahead of where we are”","url":"https://time.com/3501744/ebola-vaccine-nih/","keywords":["ebola","Infectious Disease","NIH","ebola vaccine"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3d5d92fbf8d161d9/69876042cd68482e190970bc/francis-collins-nih-ebola-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3d5d92fbf8d161d9/69876042cd68482e190970bc/francis-collins-nih-ebola-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"NIH Director Francis Collins","caption":"NIH Director Francis Collins","creditText":"Bloomberg/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/ebola/","name":"ebola"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3501744/ebola-vaccine-nih/","name":"Funding Cuts Delayed Ebola Vaccine, U.S. Official Says"}}]}] ```