Hand draw of vodka bottle. Vector illustration

Those who want to purchase hand sanitizer right now might have to break their budget to do so. That's because the outbreak of the coronavirus and ongoing flu season has led to an unprecedented run on hand sanitizer. The mass hoarding has eliminated the product from many store shelves, leaving the public to perceive e-commerce websites as the final frontier for hand sanitizer.

A quick Friday afternoon search for “hand sanitizer” on Amazon.com either showed out of stock product, options that don't really fit the criteria (ice machine sanitizer) or bottles that obviously found prey to price gouging — $10 for a 50ml travel bottle. Other reported seeing worse.

Some people found the idea of being without hand sanitizer so hard to comprehend that they began researching ways to make their own. And that turned out just a poorly as one might expect.

Tito's Handmade Vodka actually had to issue a Tweet warning people not to use its vodka to make hand sanitizer after one Twitter user reported doing just that, reports CNN.

“Per the CDC, hand sanitizer needs to contain at least 60% alcohol, reads the tweet. “Tito's Handmade Vodka is 40% alcohol, and therefore does not meet the current recommendation of the CDC. Please see attached for more information."

Instead, Tito's advised the public to do what those in the cleaning industry have shouted for a long time: wash hands with soap and water.