Testing URL for existence, and failing

Running this on Ubuntu 16.04
I can download the file fine with Chrome
RCurl gets the wrong answer, httr errors off.
I can't figure out how to get around this annoying SSL issue

url <- "https://dshs.texas.gov/coronavirus/TexasCOVID-19CumulativeTestsOverTimebyCounty.xlsx"

#  is file still there?

RCurl::url.exists(url) 

httr::http_error(url)

Output:

RCurl::url.exists(url)
[1] FALSE

httr::http_error(url)
Error in curl::curl_fetch_memory(url, handle = handle) :
SSL certificate problem: unable to get local issuer certificate

To actually download the file I have been using, sadly,

Tests <- getBinaryURL(url, ssl.verifyhost=FALSE, ssl.verifypeer=FALSE)

I could use

RCurl::url.exists(url, ssl.verifyhost=FALSE, ssl.verifypeer=FALSE)

but I'd like to know if there is a better way. I hate turning security off to get something to work,

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