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the memory
My brother Davide, who died after the Covid vaccine. Every choice made for the common good deserves to be preserved
Davide Villa died in Catania on March 6 five years ago. He got vaccinated out of a sense of responsibility. The brother: 'I am not looking for blame, but memory'
On March 6, five years ago, my brother Davide died from a cerebral thrombosis that occurred a few days after receiving the Covid vaccine. Subsequent investigations recognized a thrombosis with immune thrombocytopenia (VITT), a rare thrombotic syndrome related to vaccination. Writing this clearly is not a technical detail, but an act of respect towards the facts and towards a time that our city also went through with fear and responsibility.
These were suspended months. Silent Catania, empty streets, more frequent sirens. We were asked for trust, civic sense, responsibility. These were not simple choices, but collective choices. Davide got vaccinated out of duty: for the job he held in the State Police, for that uniform he lived as a daily commitment to serving the community. He also got vaccinated for the mother he cared for every day, with the discretion that always characterized him. It was the right thing to do. And he did it without turning it into a gesture to showcase.
I don’t want him to be remembered for his death, but for the way he lived that moment. For the consistency with which he faced responsibilities. For that trust in the common good that for him was not theory, but practice.
Last year we remembered him with "Brother policeman, policeman brother", my photo docufilm, presented on the occasion of the Police Day on April 11, 2025. It was my way of staying within that memory: to look and to tell. The reflections of prosecutor Sebastiano Ardita, Fra Massimo Corallo, and the police chief of Catania Giuseppe Bellassai gave voice to the images, speaking of civil duty, brotherhood, and that “Always being there” which is a concrete responsibility. The closeness of his colleagues was not formal: it was a testimony of belonging that this city was able to express with dignity.
I am a photographer and a journalist. I know that words have weight, but I have learned that before using them you must look. For five years I have been looking at this absence. I have not turned it into anger, even when it would have been easier. I have not sought blame, because the story of those months is complex and has affected thousands of families. However, I know that behind every public decision there are individual lives, faces, relationships.
Five years later, there remains an act carried out with responsibility. There remains the choice to protect others without making it a banner. There remains the idea that “we” comes before “I”. This is what should not be lost over time. March 6 does not ask for clamor. It asks for memory. Remembering means not allowing a story to dissolve in indifference or to be reduced to a statistical note.
What happened does not belong only to one family, but to a season that Catania also experienced on its own skin. Because every choice made for the common good deserves to be safeguarded with the same dignity with which it was made.