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...
This is a situation where you really need to understand the policies themselves. The administrators will have a very large set of regulations that they adhere to that they then try to summarize into emails they send to students. But these emails aren't binding: the regulations are. You need to read the regulations themselves. Ask for a copy. Also try to find them online. They may be on your school's website, or in the catalog, or maybe even part of your state/federal regulations if it's a public school.
The other thing to look at would be the government authorization for the AstraZeneca vaccine. One of the items that document should have is a list of medical conditions that prevents someone from being able to receive it. Usually this is things like allergic reactions to ingredients in the vaccine but may include other medical conditions. Hell you may read it and find you really do have a valid medical exemption.
Treat this as you would an important research paper for a class you care about. Primary sources only. You will not "wonder" if you can claim certain exemptions; you will know.
Three things that are important to understand from those policies:
This is a bit of a "choose your own adventure" where you have to decide whether you're going to claim an exemption or claim you were vaccinated and stall for time not providing documentation or provide a false document. My gut says that for a public university providing a false document is probably a bad idea because there could be (criminal) penalties beyond just getting kicked out of school.
Then if you go the exemption route you will have to decide if it's for religious reasons or medical reasons. These regulations are very nation-specific and depend on whether governments formally define/register religious organizations and what those requirements are. And different governments will probably have different requirements for medical exemptions. Read and understand yours.