While COVID-19 breakthrough cases have been very rare among the large numbers of those vaccinated, they can still happen because no vaccines are 100% effective.
Severe infections in people who have been fully vaccinated are rare, generally occurring in people whose immune systems are weakened by their advanced age or medical condition. Vaccinated people are 8 times less likely to be infected and 25 times less likely to experience hospitalization or death, according to CDC studies.