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It does help. This is the first sentence of the Introduction (p. 21):

> Social distancing works.

The paper concedes this point, but wants to argue that government mandates are not worth it. The Introduction continues:

> If you keep distance from others, your risk of being infected with a communicable disease is reduced. However, the fact that social distancing works does not imply that compulsory non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs), commonly known as ‘lockdowns’ – policies that restrict internal movement, close schools and businesses, ban international travel and/or other activities – work.

They actually find that many of these activities do work. They just argue that compulsory government intervention saved many fewer lives than the actions were anticipated to save at the time and had other negative effects.