One in 50 people never know their true father
ABOUT one in 50 people do not know who their biological father is, say experts.
Adoption, sperm donation and ‘ paternity fraud’ – i n which mothers conceal a child’s true father – are some of the reasons why people are unaware of their real genetic lineage.
The figure is revealed in a new TV series, DNA Family Secrets, whose presenter, Stacey Dooley, tells viewers that the boom in genetic tests has ‘uncovered a startling statistic – about one in 50 people do not have the biological father they think they have’.
The show will also state that about a million people in the UK grow up without any contact with their true fathers.
Geneticist Turi King, who took part in the programme, due to air at 9pm on Tuesday, told The Mail on Sunday: ‘ There are a number of factors why the biological father is not the recorded father. In some cases, a woman might enter a new relationship when the child is young and the new father raises that child as his own. Sometimes the man believes himself to be the biological father but he is not, and then there is the issue of adoption and, more recently, sperm donation.’
Prof King added that false paternity ‘tends to be more prevalent in cities, where there is more opportunity’ and ‘among lower income groups’.
ALMOST three-quarters of care providers want to impose a ‘no job, no jab’ p o l i c y, it e me r g e d last night.
A poll of 194 providers carried out by employment law firm Royds Withy King discovered that 73 per cent would like to make Covid vaccination a condition of employment for new staff, unless they had a good reason to refuse, such as pregnancy.
It comes as new NHS figures revealed that more than a quarter ( 28.5 per cent) of staff in care homes have not received the vaccine – despite the high risk faced by residents.
Alarmingly, the Royds Withy King survey found that a fifth of care providers are operating with more than 40 per cent of their workforce unvaccinated.
Some providers, including Care UK which runs more than 120 homes, have already required its staff to be inoculated.
Barchester Healthcare, which r u n s more t h a n 2 0 0 h o mes, told staff last week that they had until April 23 to be vaccinated unless they had a good reason not to be inoculated.
Almost 6,000 care home workers i n Wales have not had t hei r first jab, despite having been prioritised in the vaccination programme.
Mario Kreft, chairman of Care Forum Wales, which represents nearly 500 independent providers, said it was ‘clearly sensible that care homes should be allowed to refuse to recruit anybody who has not been vaccinated’. He added: ‘Some homes are doing incredibly well ; we’ve heard s t o r i e s o f 100 per cent take-up, but others are struggling.
‘It only takes one person to bring one of the new strains of the virus in to vulnerable people.’
Mark Cunningham, chief executive of Heathlands Village, a residential care provider in Manchester, said that about 84 per cent of his 350 staff had been vaccinated – significantly higher than the national rate.
Despite the success, he admitted that trying to convince some staff to get vaccinated has been ‘a battle in terms of hearts and minds’.
He said: ‘There are people who are worried or not very confident in the vaccine – whether that’s because of religious reasons, t hei r own personal vi ews or health reasons.’
Justice Secretary Robert Buckland last week said there was a ‘clear rationale’ for homes to turn away staff who refuse the vaccine – but he ducked questions about whether existing staff who reject the offer should be sacked.