The key to all adaptive mechanisms is that they have to not kill the bacteria as well. The mechanism of action for hand sanitizers is to disrupt the lipid memb

The key to all adaptive mechanisms is that they have to not kill the bacteria as well. The mechanism of action for hand sanitizers is to disrupt the lipid membrane - it's possible no adaptation exists to make a lipid membrane resistance to high concentrations of alcohol (or other surfactants) that also still renders it a workable membrane. The current resistance mechanisms in the study are mostly efflux pumps, which again, may not be expressible to save a bacteria when alcohol is present at volume. Even most antibiotic resistance mechanisms are not actually a binary "Works/Doesn't Work" but rather can fight off the antibiotics at the concentration they're delivered in.