Severe COVID-19 breakthrough infections extremely low among vaccinated, data shows

As panic reaches a fever pitch over the highly contagious Delta variant of COVID-19, new data shows there’s only a minuscule risk of vaccinated Americans becoming seriously sick with breakthrough cases.

Out of 161 million US residents who were fully vaccinated as of July 19, just 5,601 caught a severe breakthrough infection and were hospitalized — an infinitesimal 0.0035 percent of the protected population, according to the latest CDC figures available on post-vaccination infections.

When it comes to deaths, the risk is even lower, with just 1,141 vaccinated people dying from a COVID-19 breakthrough infection...