For the longest time, China has been a convenient scapegoat for the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

We saw examples of this, from the use of racist phrases when referring to the virus, and to fabricated theories claiming it was man-made in a Chinese laboratory.

However, a WHO-led team searching for clues about the virus's origin revealed its findings after a highly-watched study in China's Wuhan: It is "extremely unlikely" that the virus was leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and they don't recommend further study on such a theory.

In the language of science, it is rare to use an absolute tone because there is always a limitation to human knowledge.

But even a definitive tone like this won't stop conspiracy theories. Now, many shift their focus to the openness of the study: they question what the researchers in Wuhan are allowed to see and do as part of their tour.

But the Associated Press reported earlier on Tuesday that a member of the WHO expert team said China had granted full access to all sites and personnel they requested – a level of openness that even he hadn't expected.

The unfounded theory that the COVID-19 virus was leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology had been perpetuated by former President Donald Trump's administration of the United States, in an apparent bid to distract criticisms from their own disastrous mismanagement of the pandemic.

"The fact that the U.S. suffers the worst COVID-19 outbreak in the world is in large part the result of our own leaders' actions and inactions," the American think tank Brookings said on its website.

It is not surprising that the WHO-led team suggested more work was needed to identify the source of the virus. To put this into context, it took more than a decade to find the origins of SARS, while the origins of Ebola – first identified in the 1970s – is still not yet known.

Now the most pressing challenge is how to stop the pandemic, with more than 107 million cases and 2.3 million deaths reported worldwide at the time of this recording. 

Playing the blame game is a serious distraction from the essential and difficult work needed to control this unprecedented health crisis. It is now clear that China is not the problem.

But China is a critical part of the solution. It's time to end the blame game, collaborate to vanquish the pandemic, and lay the groundwork for more effective handling of future outbreaks.