QED is not endangered by the proton's size

Pohl et al. have reported a very precise measurement of the Lamb-shift in muonic hydrogen (Pohl et al., 2010) [1], from which they infer the radius characterizing the proton's charge distribution. The result is 5 standard deviations away from the one of the CODATA compilation of physical constants. This has been interpreted (Pohl et al., 2010) [1] as possibly requiring a 4.9 standard-deviation modification of the Rydberg constant, to a new value that would be precise to 3.3 parts in 10(13), as well as putative evidence for physics beyond the standard model (Flowers. 2010) [2]. I demonstrate that these options are unsubstantiated. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.