Three years after the last worldwide mpox outbreak, the W.H.O. still has neither officially approved the vaccines — although the United States and Europe have — nor has it issued an emergency use license that would speed access.
And the W.H.O. decided not to issue an emergency license back then because it wanted to ensure that research data was generated, he said. Authorizing widespread use would have cost researchers that essential opportunity.
The article is worth reading. It’s critical of the WHO but does include that organization’s point of view. My TLDR would be that regulators are much more concerned about approving a treatment that harms people than they are about doing nothing and passively allowing people to be harmed.