Carnegie-Mellon and U of Washington (UW) are both top 10 for CS programs, so that's not surprising. I imagine high schoolers who are CS applicants are well aware of this fact.
It's not just governments. Large corporations too frequently use McKinsey to make recommendations for things they want to do anyway (e.g. layoffs or restructuring). From the client executive's point of view, the money spent on a McKinsey contract effectively purchases credibility for these decisions.
As a parent, I actually do pay attention to CDC stats. And because of this, I am worried - not because of kidnappers, but because of cars - which unlike most other dangers have only gotten deadlier (to pedestrians) over the years (source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/07/us/pedestrian-deaths.html). Despite living an urban lifestyle, walking or biking to destinations, and teaching our kid basic traffic safety, we are nonetheless at the mercy of other people driving deadly weapons all the time.