Container shipping, the backbone of the global trading system, is showing signs of fatigue as the pandemic descends into its darkest days.

The challenge of ensuring equitable distribution of the coronavirus vaccine is one of global scale, and the city of Miami provides a backdrop for the social and economic divides that the medical community must overcome.

A flotilla of almost a dozen cargo vessels sits anchored just south of Los Angeles this weekend, waiting for berth space. Around the twin ports of L.A. and Long Beach, shipping containers already are stacked five and six high — the maximum the fire department will allow.

The humble shipping container has a new status in the COVID-19 pandemic: hot commodity.

The medical industry’s dash to produce the world’s first coronavirus vaccines in just a few months is heightening the urgency for the workhorses of global trade to be ready for the historic charge to defeat the disease.

The global shipping industry sustained a second cyberattack within a week that’s raising concern about disruptions to supply chains already straining to move goods heading into the usual peak season for consumer demand.

COVID-19 is about to put the global trading system through its most dramatic stress test since World War II, with supply lines for essential food and medical goods entering a critical phase as the pandemic peaks in the U.S. and Europe.

Global trade in goods will likely stay weak in coming months as disruptions from coronavirus in China staunch the movement of international commerce already slowed by tariffs and uncertainty, according to the World Trade Organization.

The Cass Freight Index, a monthly measure of rail, trucking and airfreight volume, dropped 3% in August from a year earlier, the ninth consecutive month of declines.

Labor Day picnic products are just a sampling of the more than 3,200 categories of Chinese goods targeted for the new tariff starting Sept. 1, barring a last-minute flinch by President Donald Trump.