With all these masks and hospital clothing items in such shortage, WHY are hospitals not using those UVC lights in a room to sterilize the special clothing? Pic related.

In the old days, the hospitals did not throw all things away.

In fact, I suspect that the laws requiring that hospitals use something once and then throw it away were lobbied into existence for the companies that make the money selling the equipment. This does not benefit hospitals, or hospital cost.

In the old days, they used something called an autoclave for equipment.

Today, we can sterilize whole hospital surgery rooms with robot lights that move around the room for 90 minutes. Most hospitals have these robot lights now. (pic related)

What we need to do is run a simple test on the clothing. Find out how many minutes of hanging in a room like this it would take to sterilize everything people have to wear from head to toe. You might have to have someone go in to flip the clothing around on their hangers a bit, but, after sterilization, the clothing should be good to go without virus, or bacteria.

Why do the hospitals not use these lights to sterilize the masks and other special clothing in addition to the whole surgery rooms?

Just an thought.

If you could wear the same suit 5-10-15 times, sterilizing between each use, that would increase the medical equipment that is in short supply, until supply catches up with demand.