If anything, it’s likely to be less severe than a full-blown infection.
If you require a refresher, and it’s understandable if you do, here’s a breakdown of how vaccines operate, particularly mRNA vaccines: your body receives a signal to generate a specific type of protein resembling a real virus, prompting your antibodies to spring into action and combat it effectively. In the scenario where the genuine virus tries to invade, your immune system is already primed for defense. This underlines the crucial role of vaccination at present: consistent resistance against infections hampers their spread.
However, vaccines do not offer guaranteed immunity and there might be instances where an infection occurs despite being fully vaccinated. This is referred to as a “vaccine breakthrough case.” While the existing COVID-19 vaccines are highly efficient in combating both the standard virus strains and the emerging Delta variant, they are not foolproof, thus leaving a possibility of infection. So, what should one anticipate in such a scenario?
In the majority of instances, probably nothing. If your immune system is sufficiently robust to combat the symptoms but not strong enough to instantly eradicate the virus, you might experience an asymptomatic infection, where you appear normal outwardly but could still be shedding viral particles. As long as those around you are also immunized, this poses no significant risk. In rarer cases, you may exhibit some symptoms, albeit much milder due to the vaccine’s ability to mitigate the severity, resulting in only fatigue, a runny nose, and mild allergy-like manifestations. Identifying it as a COVID reaction might be challenging unless a temporary loss of smell or taste occurs.
To be fair, there is a slim chance of developing a severe, hospital-requiring COVID-19 infection even after complete vaccination. Nevertheless, based on CDC data, the likelihood of this happening is roughly 0.001%. While not impossible, the odds are heavily stacked against it, especially if both doses of the vaccine are administered if accessible to you (and it’s strongly recommended).