I can't comment on the specifics and what process was followed, but I think we are in a crisis situation due to the pandemic globally.
I understand the stance that WHO has taken, given Philip Morris's 21% stake in the company, but I was asking myself, if this had been the first vaccine coming out in 2020-21, what would our position have been then?
I, for one, am someone who has been actively working in the space of smoking and tobacco, and I would not support anything that is tobacco industry-funded. However, WHO has in the past, in 2014, approved treatments for Ebola that had tobacco ties.
I don't know how things will go in this particular case, but I think we need to look at things through a different lens from the one we would use in non-pandemic situations.