Of masks and methylene blue—The use of methylene blue photochemical treatment to decontaminate surgical masks contaminated with a tenacious small nonenveloped norovirus

•PPE reuse necessitates reliable respiratory and oral human pathogen decontamination.•Equitable decontamination technologies must be available in low-resource settings.•Methylene blue photochemical treatment decontaminates noroviruses on surgical masks.•Norovirus inactivation predicts inactivation of any less resistant viral contaminant.•Role of low-cost – low-tech photochemical decontamination in pandemic preparedness.