ALT "Covid is not a cold. With a cold, you don't usually see any long-term effects, you don't see any changes in the blood vessels, you don't usually see an autoimmune disease developing, you also don't usually see neurological inflammation - these are all things that we see with long Covid. Therefore, one should not assume that Covid infection is just a common cold. It can affect brain tissue and the vascular system, and we still lack an effective treatment." Karl Lauterbach Minister of Health Germany december 2023