Depends on what you mean by "work".
France's spring lockdown (which was a REAL lockdown, not US-style) "worked" in the sense that new cases fell to a very low level and stayed there for nine weeks.
It did not "work" in the sense that, as soon as they relaxed to a US-level pretend "lockdown", cases exploded to the point that France is now above the US in new cases/100 000 and has been for weeks.
And, of course, no political leader anywhere in the West is willing to declare that the cost (the ruined lives) exceeds the benefit of fewer new cases over relatively brief periods of time.
France did nine weeks in March-May and they couldn't stand the pain. Macron is announcing a new six week "confinement" tonight.
The discussion about whether actual "lockdowns" work or not is irrelevant, since the Western European experience now shows that two months is not nearly enough, two YEARS might possibly "work" but any government doing that would be overthrown long before their plan "worked".
People have to face the facts: If Ebola were circulating with this velocity and this infectivity, there would be no discussion. COVID-19 is not Ebola, it's not smallpox, it's not measles. Therefore - the decision about, for example, wrecking the schools for two years is a political one, it's not a matter of "following the science" or, worse, "believing in science", it's a matter of weighing burdens and benefits, which is what these politicians are hired to do in the first place.
This was never about public health.
There is no stopping the virus. That never was the point. The initial lockdown was to “flatten the curve”’ Even the most enthusiastic lockdown proponents never thought we could change the area under the curve. One could argue whether that was successful or not but it has been many months since resources were tight.
I live in a “hot spot” where cases and hospitalizations are rising. The death rate however is not rising and hospitals are busy but nowhere near overwhelmed so the initial reasons for lockdown do not apply. We are much better at treating this thing and i believe the virus is attenuating was well. That is not stopping our politicians and public health nazis from taking is backwards again. We have has a universal masking order for months - totally ineffective but they are doubling down on it
The virus is in the community. It will continue to spread no matter what we do. we can only increase the damage by overreacting with ineffective measures to try to contain the uncontainable. The question is how many lives will we ruin unnecessarily before we come to our senses?
I’m not interested in the alleged number of cases.
That actually is just going to give us herd immunity.
I’m concerned about the death rate and lack of treatment, and the reticence to us such treatment.