Thompson's official statement was released through his Cincinnati attorney, Rick Morgan.

The key piece in Thompson's statement is:

"I regret that my coauthors and I omitted statistically significant information in our 2004 article published in the journal Pediatrics. The omitted data suggested that African American males who received the MMR vaccine before age 36 months were at increased risk for autism. Decisions were made regarding which findings to report after the data were collected, and I believe that the final study protocol was not followed."

"My concern has been the decision to omit relevant findings in a particular study for a particular sub group for a particular vaccine. There have always been recognized risks for vaccination and I believe it is the responsibility of the CDC to properly convey the risks associated with receipt of those vaccines."

Everything else in Thompson's statement is backfill and back-pedaling and legal positioning and self-protection.

But this part, this is big. Within Thompson's community of researchers and the general world of medical research and publishing, people know what it means.