Yes, the words are a clear refusal to accept any responsibility, or to accept that they could have chosen things be done differently. As you point out, there is some conflicting scientific advice and they have chosen to follow one option rather than another, but they pretend they have made no such choices.

I see no evidence that they are pretending to have made no such choices. They do not accept that they were in error (if they were) in making the choices they did based on available information.
When you take what you believe to be the correct action, based on the scientific advice, even if hindsight shows that a different action may have had better results, then there is nothing to apologise for.