Response to Letters Re: "Assessing mandatory stay- at- home and business closure effects on the spread of COVID- 19". European journal of clinical investigation Bendavid, E., Oh, C., Bhattacharya, J., Ioannidis, J. P. 2021: e13553

Abstract

We are pleased to see the active discussion around our study on the relationship between mandatory stay- at- home and business closures and COVID-19 spread.1 In this response, we address issues raised in three letters.2-4 The claim that the study had sample size of n=10 countries is incorrect.2 Each of the 16 regression models represented in Figure 4 included, on average, 1,362 data points (range 771-3,493) on 52 subnational units (range 27-129). Each panel regression is, in effect, a "mini-meta-analysis": the effect size is evaluated within each subnational unit, and the overall effect size is estimated from a pooling of these "within" effects. So while we aggregated the results to 10 countries, the sample size is not n=10.

View details for DOI 10.1111/eci.13553

View details for PubMedID 33756017