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Amid scarcity of N95 respirators for healthcare workers due to the COVID-19 pandemic, exposure to ultraviolet light, microwave steam, dry oven heat, ethylene oxide, or vaporized hydrogen peroxide, as well as allowing 72 hours for the virus to become nonviable before reuse, appear to be feasible options for decontamination, according to a review published today in JAMA Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery. (7/2)

A British consortium formed by a group of aerospace, automotive and engineering firms to build ventilators for the country’s health service said on Sunday it would end after delivering over 13,000 devices. VentilatorChallengeUK said its production had more than doubled the stock of ventilators available for use in the National Health Service. (7/5)

Tomas Kapler knew nothing about ventilators — he’s an online business consultant, not an engineer or a medical technician. But when he saw that shortages of the vital machines had imperiled critically ill COVID-19 patients in northern Italy, he was moved to action. “It was a disturbing feeling for me that because of a lack of equipment the doctors had to decide whether a person gets a chance to live,” Kapler said. “That seemed so horrific to me that it was an impulse to do something.” And so he did. “I just said to myself: ‘Can we simply make the ventilators?’” he said. (Janicek, 7/6)

Alarmed at China’s stranglehold over supplies of masks, gowns, test kits and other front-line weapons for battling the coronavirus, countries around the world have set up their own factories to cope with this pandemic and outbreaks of the future. When the outbreak subsides, those factories may struggle to survive. China has laid the groundwork to dominate the market for protective and medical supplies for years to come. (Bradsher, 7/5)

In late March, the Justice Department rolled out a task force that would focus on hoarding and price-gouging. Attorney General William Barr touted its work at a White House news conference, and deputized Craig Carpenito — the U.S. attorney for New Jersey — to lead the nationwide effort. But behind the scenes, according to people familiar with the discussions, some White House officials expressed reservations and concerns about the task force’s approach, and some disagreed with DOJ officials about how to use one particular legal authority. The people helming the response faced a brave new legal challenge: how to target price-gougers and hoarders under the Defense Production Act, a decades-old law that grants the feds broad authority over the private sector during national emergencies. (Woodruff Swan and Gerstein, 7/3)