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...
Yeah, to my knowledge we're still in a "State of Emergency" (at least, I presume Qld, where the University is situated, is, like much of the rest of the country...), which basically means the normal rule of law is suspended, so... Even if we DO have something like that here (which I highly doubt. I mean, honestly, we all know what Australia is like by now...), I imagine it will be sidestepped/suspended, at present...
As I said in another comment, to old mate Impossible, our Prime Minister literally tried to overrule the public health standing committee on vaccines (that is, an independent body, supposedly outside of politics), which... Tells you all you need to know, really.
In 2021 Aus, "rules for thee, but not for me", is quite literally the default position, here... Fuck, they even said in a "press conference" last week that any and all vaccine mandates won't apply to PUBLIC SERVANTS (i.e. the politicians themselves, and their advisors/staff/minions), because they are not in a "public facing" position... :-/ I'm not making that up...
I have zero confidence in the "rule of law", here, anymore, which is just... Kind of depressing, honestly. Barring a revolution (which won't happen), I'm really not sure that there's any real way out of this. :-(
Sorry for the blackpill. I'm just spitballin'. But I think people sometimes underestimate just how bad this is getting (everywhere, not just where I am), so... It's important that we're awake to that, I suppose, if nothing else!!