Delays in administering COVID-19 vaccine shots pose a fresh risk to investors who bet on a speedy vaccination process to help risky U.S. companies bounce back from the pandemic, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The approval of coronavirus vaccines made by Pfizer Inc. and Moderna Inc. last year propelled rescue financing packages for several cash-strapped companies, supplying them with what investors thought would be enough liquidity to keep them afloat until widespread immunity took hold. Cineworld Group PLC, AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc., Carnival Corp. and other companies with bleak outlooks because of the pandemic found financial lifelines to tide them over. These deals continued a trend dating back months before the vaccines were approved, as actions taken by the Federal Reserve and Congress, coupled with investors’ eagerness to continue lending, kept the corporate default rate well below analysts’ expectations. But the sluggish rollout of the vaccines is now undermining the timeline that investors projected when extending emergency credit. The U.S. government fell well short of its goal of vaccinating 20 million Americans in 2020, having administered just 2.8 million doses by the end of last year, according to federal figures, in part due to differing state policies that have led to confusion and shipment delays.
