GoodTaste
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Judges stand on shakier ground when they press a second kind of medical argument — the claim that biomedical research compels a legal or policy judgment. “Follow the science,” it’s often said, but as the Court observed a century ago in Jacobson v. Massachusetts, science alone can’t command policy. Science, the Court noted in 1905, established smallpox vaccination’s efficacy, but municipal authorities decided to prioritize this efficacy over the proposition that personal liberty should preclude mandatory vaccination. The Court affirmed these authorities’ constitutional power to require vaccination. For both the authorities and the justices, science was the substrate; municipal authorities’ valuing of public safety over vaccine resistors’ freedom was the decision’s mo- tive force.
Source: The New England Journal of Medicine (Medicalising the Constitution?)
I don't understand the use of "but" here. The sentence seems actually meaning "Science...established small- pox vaccination’s efficacy, but (what's equally or more important was that) municipal authorities decided to prioritize this efficacy over the proposition", and thus echoes the previous claim that "science alone can’t command policy". If my guess is right, then the part of "(what's equally or more important was that)" would not be omittable. The omission would express the opposite meaning.
I checked out the definitions for "but" in Merriam-Webster Dictionary and found that "but" can mean "if not; unless", which might solve the problem here. But I am not sure.
What does "but" mean there?
Source: The New England Journal of Medicine (Medicalising the Constitution?)
I don't understand the use of "but" here. The sentence seems actually meaning "Science...established small- pox vaccination’s efficacy, but (what's equally or more important was that) municipal authorities decided to prioritize this efficacy over the proposition", and thus echoes the previous claim that "science alone can’t command policy". If my guess is right, then the part of "(what's equally or more important was that)" would not be omittable. The omission would express the opposite meaning.
I checked out the definitions for "but" in Merriam-Webster Dictionary and found that "but" can mean "if not; unless", which might solve the problem here. But I am not sure.
What does "but" mean there?
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