Publications

(CNN)More than a year and a half into the Covid-19 pandemic, the US finds itself facing a new set of parameters: We now have Covid-19 vaccines available for those 5 years of age and older, we have information at our disposal about the effectiveness of mask usage for reducing the risk of disease spread, and we better understand the effect the pandemic can have on children. But while things feel like they are getting better, it is important to remember that the pandemic is not over, particularly since the rise of the Delta variant. We still have over 1,100 Covid-related deaths in the US per day. And as of November 11, children represented over a quarter of all weekly reported Covid-19 cases, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.

The U.S. News & World Report (US News) annually ranks educational institutions on several criteria that affect many readers’ views of their institutional reputations. One critic of the US News rankings recently declared the medical school rankings a “beauty contest.” We agree and set out several years ago to persuade US News to shift the source of its data and diversify the foci of its medical school rankings to reflect a broader range of social mission metrics. We focused this effort on US News’ “Best Medical Schools: Primary Care” ranking because of the ongoing erosion of the primary care physician workforce and because, for some schools, it is a specific social mission.