CNN is having another coronavirus town hall this Thursday hosted by Anderson Cooper and Dr. Sanjay Gupta. The scheduled guests include the former acting director of the CDC, Richard Besser, the former HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius (both from the Obama administration) and teen-climate-scold Greta Thunberg. What expertise does a teenager who hasn’t finished high school have to offer on a global pandemic? It’s a fair question.

What place does Greta Thunberg have in this town hall? pic.twitter.com/qIKOCV8QcP

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) May 13, 2020

It really does seem like a stretch.

From now on, CNN just needs to feature her on every expert panel. Just to f*** with everybody. "TONIGHT ON CNN: EXPERT PANEL ON PARTICLE PHYSICS, FEATURING CHILD WHO YELLS AT ADULTS GRETA THUNBERG!"

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) May 13, 2020

CNN’s Oliver Darcy offered an explanation for why Thunberg had been invited on the panel. Last month she made a donation to Unicef for children impacted by the coronavirus:

she is donating $100,000 (money she was awarded) to help kids affected by coronavirus! it's not like she's being brought on as a medical expert https://t.co/85YoXVcaur

— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) May 13, 2020

So, according to Darcy, she’s not being invited on as an medical expert, just as a “special guest.” Of course, Sebelius and Besser are also listed as “special guests” so it still seems like an odd choice to round out the panel.

Special guests: former CDC director, former HHS director, doctor, child.

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) May 13, 2020

Unicef created this donation page for Thunberg’s new project which has the unwieldy title “Let’s move humanity for children in the fight against coronavirus.” Forgive me for saying so, but it sounds as if she is in fact being positioned as a kind of activist/expert on the impact of the coronavirus on children. Here’s a quote from Thunberg featured on the page:

Like the climate crisis, the coronavirus pandemic is a child-rights crisis. It will affect all children, now and in the long-term, but vulnerable groups will be impacted the most. I’m asking everyone to step up and join me in support of UNICEF’s vital work to save children’s lives, to protect health and continue education.

Here’s a related video in which Thunberg explains her new funding campaign.

I’m guessing that, or something very much like it, is what we’re going to hear from Thunberg during the CNN town hall. CNN may not be presenting her as a “medical expert” but they are asking viewers to treat her as an expert on the impact of the virus and as someone to emulate on the proper response.

But I think the real issue here isn’t expertise so much as name recognition. Unicef is asking for donations of $1.6 billion and Thunberg has volunteered to put her star-power behind it. CNN is happy to have her on as a famous face to punch up its town hall special guest list. I mean, who is really tuning in to hear from Kathleen Sebelius? How many Americans could identify Sebelius out of a line up? Not many I suspect, but a lot more would recognize Thunberg.

This isn’t the first time CNN’s coronavirus town halls have featured people who were basically there because they are famous faces. The last one featured Al Gore and director Spike Lee.

Former Vice President Al Gore, director Spike Lee and the author of “The Coming Plague” Laurie Garrett join @AndersonCooper & @DrSanjayGupta for a live #CNNTownHall. Coronavirus – Facts and Fears, tonight at 8 p.m. ET pic.twitter.com/giGc0mQp2F

— CNN (@CNN) May 7, 2020

Before that CNN did a town hall in April featuring Alicia Keys:

Bottom line: CNN will drag anyone onto these very special after-school coronavirus specials if they think it might help the ratings. Greta Thunberg, for better or worse, is pretty famous. Here’s the CNN promo for tomorrow night’s town hall: