  In our recent work [Phys. Rev. Lett. 128, 137001 (2002)], we proposed that
the apical oxygen vacancies act as anisotropic scattering impurities. Within
the Born approximation, this leads to a quasi-particle scattering rate that is
maximal (zero) in the antinodal (nodal) direction. This unique angular
dependence provides a straightforward mechanism for some puzzling experimental
results in overdoped La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$ (LSCO) films regarding the
superfluid density $\rho_s$ and optical conductivity $\sigma_1$. In a recent
comment by H. U. Ozdemir et al. [arXiv:2206.01301], the importance of the
nature of the impurity scattering is re-emphasized, but some challenges to our
picture are raised: that we did not consider the change of the electrostatic
potential for in-plane electrons once the apical oxygen is missing, the change
of Fermi surface topology as the van Hove point is passed, self-energy
corrections caused by d-wave pairing, and vertex corrections caused by forward
scattering. These concerns are interesting but are either irrelevant or further
enhances our conclusions. We discuss these points one by one in this reply.
