A total lockdown would eliminate Covid (i.e, if no humans came in to contact with any other humans) but as a capitalist society we need also to make money to survive. If you ask one part of your society to give this up (making a living) to help the rest you need to compensate. Once you start to compensate your friends more than your opponents (as pointed out by @Falco) they will stop cooperating.But it seems illogical to believe a pandemic can be sorted by lockdown if the government ponies up enough cash, but not if it doesn't!