The diagnosis of "grippe" is a doctor saying he does not know any more than you, a name given when he "does not know," according to the National Newspaper Service column of Dr Brady. Sometimes it turns out to be tuberculosis, but it is rarely "influenza." The NNS is a distribution product of the Committee on Public Information, the Administration's "official news."
Source: "Interesting Health Queries," Richmond Times, Richmond, Virginia, February 17, 1918. Page 4, Column 4.