DNA testing has become as simple as walking up to a truck, giving the required sample and getting the results. Health Street is a testing company owned and operated by Jared Rosenthal that uses two RVs to go around the streets of New York City offering its special deal on wheels.
With an interesting slogan, “Whos your Daddy?”, the company provides DNA tests to whosoever is curious about parentage.
The converted RVs have attractive interiors far removed from the sterile decor of testing laboratories. This environment helps people to open up and relax and ready to share details, says Rosenthal.
The DNA tests cost between $299 and $575. They require a simple cheek swab from the father and child, which is followed by a lab analysis.
Rosenthal was in health care marketing before he decided to do his own thing. His truck was painted by the Tats Cru, a famous graffiti outfit, which got fast and overwhelming reactions.
Health Street is now one of the leading providers of drug and DNA testing in the city. Almost 10,000 companies have contracts with him for tests and background checks. In a day, five DNA swabs are sent for testing.
The RV idea became so popular that it attracted its own reality television show on VH1, which was called Swab Stories and was filmed for an entire season.
Rosenthal talked in an interview about the various people his work has helped. Some lost and adopted people have been able to find family and connect with them. He said, “You have to have empathy. How you give someone difficult personal news can impact that person for the rest of their lives No one really knows who they are. The essential question is Who am I? Where do I come from?” He has performed many DNA tests in these years which have urged him to question ethnicity and identity in a new way.
