(scare quotes important here...the authors themselves say: "This report is not intended for publication in a journal". So before this pre-print was even released (ie NO other scientists were able to read it or look at the data), the Atlantic performs the puff-job you linked...on a paper NEVER intended for peer-review. This is not the way scientific publishing is supposed to work--and definitely not on a matter as contentious and globally important as the question of how covid began.)

I think there is value in looking at the circumstances of this "report" hitting the Atlantic/mainstream news cycle:

--An opportunity for skeptics like Handle to see that something is amiss in how the covid origins debate is being covered in the media.
--That what the authors of the "report" are doing is largely spin, not objective, peer-reviewed science.
--That the Atlantic (and others) were guilty of journalistic malpractice (on an extremely important topic) in how they covered this.

the Handle, with no grip:

>I mean, let's not talk about it yet FIF, it's exhausting: I
>know it could still be: - a racoon dog was using unknown and
>advanced tools (that are undetectable to less advanced
>researchers) to study corona viruses, slipped up and give it
>to itself, then travelled to the market for lunch where it
>spread from.

"slipped up and give it to itself" --the words of a drunk prostitute talking about an std? hm...but...regarding the "report", covid & raccoon dogs: false. the "report" does NOT show that the raccoon dogs had covid. it looks like, maybe, there was covid on surfaces near raccoon dog dna (shedded fur, slobber, etc). when? on jan 1 2020. long after the first human cases of covid are known to have occurred (late nov-early dec 2019, or before).

if you wanna tighten up your understanding of what's going on in the investigations into covid's origins, i'm all ears. but i think you need to do some reading. you're talking full of certainty from a place of ignorance. you're insulated from the facts, you use the low-resolution, sound-bite views of others to form very strong opinions. not a good method for understanding a topic like this. pass over it in silence, or educate yourself. in general, try to learn how to live with uncertainty, it may help you deal with your emotional problems. this is unsolicited advice, but you often type like an unhinged asshole, so there ya go...

here is a good place to start: Jesse Bloom at Seattle's Fred Hutch analyzes the raccoon report:
https://twitter.com/jbloom_lab/status/1638373988392140801