Editor's note: CGTN's First Voice provides instant commentary on breaking stories. The daily column clarifies emerging issues and better defines the news agenda, offering a Chinese perspective on the latest global events. This is part III in a series on WHO-China joint study on the origins of the coronavirus.

Since COVID-19 was first noticed in Wuhan, Western media and politicians have vested in scoring ideological points against China to advance their geopolitical goals. They claimed that the situation in Wuhan was the product of a political cover-up and claimed this represented a flaw in China's political system. They might not have bragged about this, but no doubt they believed an outbreak could not happen under a democratic system, or at least they could do better at managing it.

Then, after China overcame the virus successfully, Western countries who felt being ravaged, switched their mission to deflecting political responsibility for the crisis to China, arguing that their own failures were the fault of the same Chinese cover-up and claimed the WHO was "complicit" in it.

It is worsened by the fact that the West persistently portrays itself as the only neutral and valid source of "political" truth. The Western public at large refused to come to terms with the fact that their own governments and media were in fact lying to them over COVID-19 to create legitimacy for geopolitical confrontation against China itself. The laboratory theory, that the virus has leaked from a lab in Wuhan and was disseminated aggressively by the Trump administration and its allies in the media, was a part of this campaign.

This narrative, that the global pandemic was China's fault, was hammered again and again in the Western public discourse. It was deeply seeded to a point where, at times, it prevents people who had vented their frustration and emotions in blaming China for the situation from accepting new scientific information that contravenes the prejudices.

The WHO-China joint research on the origins of coronavirus is a powerful statement trying to stop that campaign in its tracks. The lab-leak theory was said to be "extremely unlikely," no evidence showed that the virus was present prior to December 2019 and the origin of the virus could have been animals outside China or from frozen wildlife and cold packaged goods.

The statement discredits the conspiracy theories, but that deeply-seeded bias remains. The Biden administration questioned the result outright. Some in the media used phrases like "empty-handed" or "it failed to find the source of coronavirus" to describe the mission's results.

Sometimes science reveals things that challenge our most deeply held convictions about the world and life. For example, nobody wanted to believe Galileo that the world in fact is orbiting the sun, fundamentalist Christians do not want to accept theories of human evolution, and many people continue to deny the science of climate change. The inability to come to terms with the truth of COVID-19 is the same phenomenon.

Even though studies show that it did not originate within Wuhan and that there was no political cover-up prior to its announcement, people simply want to believe otherwise because they are vested in advancing a prejudice. And as long as they do, the world remains a step further away from getting the pandemic under control.

In hearing about what has actually happened, the world needs to be rational now. Even if they still hold the prejudice, they must recognize the fact and act based on it. Resolving prejudice takes time, but managing a pandemic doesn't tolerate delays. Countries must act now, no matter how that makes them feel.

Part I: Has the Biden administration turned a blind eye to the WHO's vindication of China's stance?

Part II: WHO refutes COVID-19 lab leak theory, lies about it might linger on

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