This is what 2 metres looks like: Doctor walks around Halifax in giant hoop
Emma Smith | CBC News | Posted: May 26, 2020 7:35 PM | Last Updated: May 26, 2020
Dr. Stephen Workman has dubbed his contraption the ‘hoopinator'
A Halifax doctor is walking around the city with what looks like a giant hula hoop suspended from his shoulders to show people what staying two metres apart looks like.
The plastic circle, 12 metres in circumference, is attached by string to a backpack and bobs around Dr. Stephen Workman's knees as he manoeuvres tree-lined sidewalks trying not to get caught on anything.
Inside his contraption, he looks something like Saturn on two feet, ensuring nothing enters his orbit.
"I think it's a funny visual gag and I hope it makes people laugh and smile, and a little more seriously, I think it's easy to overlook just how far apart two metres is," Workman, an internal medicine specialist who dabbles in theatre, told CBC's Maritime Noon.
Humans are social beings who tend to get close to one another when they talk, and Workman said it can be hard to remember that we all need to stay two metres apart to limit the transmission of COVID-19.
But when you see Workman suited up in the contraption he dubbed the hoopinator, there's no mistaking two metres.
"It's impressive," he said. "If I was in a movie theatre wearing it, it would take up probably a dozen seats around me. It's a lot of square metres when you map it out."
'I don't think people need more bad news'
Premier Stephen McNeil has issued blunt pleas to Nova Scotians to "stay the blazes home" and police have ticketed hundreds of people for failing to follow the new rules.
Workman has taken a different approach.
"I think appealing to perhaps a sense of humour and maybe a sense of citizenship is certainly better than heavy-handed approaches," he said. "I don't think people need more bad news and they don't need to feel worse about how things are or how they're doing."
But while his tactics might be lighthearted, Workman said his message is a serious one.
On Tuesday, the province reported that another person has died of the virus, bringing the total number of COVID-19 related deaths in Nova Scotia to 59.
"Right now, from a medical point of view, the absolute best way to treat this disease is for people not to get it at all," Workman said.
Video starring the hoopinator coming soon
The contraption Workman wears is the handiwork of his friend Matt MacKenzie.
Workman is involved with a theatre group of mostly health-care workers that usually puts on a play at Alderney Landing in Dartmouth each summer. That likely won't happen this year, so the hoopinator has been a chance for him to stay connected with his theatre buddies during the pandemic.
The group has made a video starring Workman and his hoopinator that will be released soon.
For the most part, Nova Scotians are too polite to make fun of him when they see him walking around, but people definitely notice.
"You get a couple double takes and occasionally people say, 'Oh what a great idea.' Or occasionally people ask what the heck is that thing," Workman said.