I know that this forum isn't intended for this type of thing, but nonetheless...
There are relatively few places where I can ask this sort of thing without being laughed off, or having to pay, or being placed on some sort of watchlist as an "antivaxxer", especially now NNN is gone, so here we are...
Saying "private entity" felt wrong, in this case, because here I am referring to my University, which uhh, isn't private...
So then, here's the rub: my University wants to mandate that we, as students, need to be vaccinated. That's scary enough, but they specifically want to force us to take the AstraZeneca jab, because that is the only one currently available to people of our age group (i.e. students) across much of Australia. AZ is the one with most of the problems. That is what I really want to avoid, never mind the precedent of being forced to get a jab, overall, even just to complete my classes...
So... What do you think I should do? I'm serious, here. I'm not joking. I need this degree. I know education is overvalued. I know that. But I really do need this stupid piece of paper. So I wondered... What recourse do you think I have, to at least make them wait out a few months until Pfizer is available, if this goes ahead? Aside from "lawyering up", and becoming a "legal test case", that is..?
I should add that two companies in Aus, leaving aside the entire aged-care sector, already have vaxx mandates (fruit production, and an airline, FYI), so... The precedent has already been set.
But yeah, I'm worried about what this means, and I would genuinely appreciate your advice on this. Cheers in advance, and thanks for (hopefully) taking this somewhat seriously...
Suspend your inscription for a year. And start looking for new universities and request a transfer.
I suspect after another year passes it'll become clear how pointless these mandates are. Although they'll probably just double down in the face of opposing evidence like they've been doing.
I hope they will just "forget" about it and quietly remove the mandatory mandates...