I don't understand what are you trying to do with this part but you could simply do this instead
covid19 <- read.csv("https://data.humdata.org/hxlproxy/api/data-preview.csv?url=https%3A%2F%2Fraw.githubusercontent.com%2FCSSEGISandData%2FCOVID-19%2Fmaster%2Fcsse_covid_19_data%2Fcsse_covid_19_time_series%2Ftime_series_covid19_confirmed_global.csv&filename=time_series_covid19_confirmed_global.csv")