1) That is NPIs, it doesn't break out the impact of lockdowns. There was a big drop in IMR across all the states, even though it seems rather unlikely that all

1) That is NPIs, it doesn't break out the impact of lockdowns. There was a big drop in IMR across all the states, even though it seems rather unlikely that all states followed the same policies. 2) If we attribute all the change to lockdowns that would suggest the lockdowns were a minor disaster. If 32% of the population didn't get vaccinated - that is basically a 3rd of the population locked down for nothing, up to around 50% in some areas. One obvious issue is lockdowns are always competing against people voluntarily choosing to stay home and isolate themselves and adopting special procedures in nursing homes. The high correlations between vaccination rate and IMR suggest it might actually just be picking up how concerned communities were with COVID and how much effort they put into protecting themselves. It is an interesting study though, I like the approach.