It's always been said of the HDR, that when using it to remote view or astral travel, it's hard to read, very much like in a dream. I remember having trouble reading in dreams, I must not be alone.
HDRKID's right in his comment/suggestion about remote viewing.
And the HDR deals with other timelines. As far as I know, it's super hard to reach the actual future of our time line. So we're talking parallel world lines here. So did the pandemic happen only in a few time lines?
That would be why hdrkid and others didn't see the pandemic coming using the HDR, or using remote viewing techniques in general.
I agree it's kind of disappointing, all things considered. It's no precise science.