Installing requests package breaks anaconda installation

I'm having an issue where when I install the requests package on a fresh anaconda install (onto an environment), it breaks my anaconda in a way where I cannot download any further packages due to an HTTP error.

The process I've gone through a number of times now is:

1. Uninstall anaconda (using anaconda-clean and add/remove programs)
2. Re-install anaconda
3. Run conda update conda on my base environment
4. Run conda create -n auckland-index python=3.7 to create a new environment
5. I install pandas with conda install pandas to make sure I can download packages in the new environment
6. I then run conda install requests to install requests, which downloads and installs successfully
7. Then when I try to install any other packages I get the below CondaHTTPError across both base and new environments

CondaHTTPError: HTTP 000 CONNECTION FAILED for url <https://repo.anaconda.com/pkgs/main/win-64/current_repodata.json>
Elapsed: -

An HTTP error occurred when trying to retrieve this URL.
HTTP errors are often intermittent, and a simple retry will get you on your way.

If your current network has https://www.anaconda.com blocked, please file
a support request with your network engineering team.

'https://repo.anaconda.com/pkgs/main/win-64'

I have tried installing requests before pandas and after other packages, but I get an CondaHTTPError always after installing requests.

I have tried the following from other stack questions to fix (of which none work):

• Set ssl_verify: false in .condarc
• Copy both libcrypto-1_1-x64.dll and libssl-1_1-x64.dll to the anaconda3/DLLs folder

I'm at a bit of a loss as to why installing requests is causing this issue, as I'm downloading it through the conda install command. This isn't a network issue either as the downloading and installing of packages was working before requests was installed. Once I have installed requests I cannot download any more packages for any environment.

Has anyone had this issue or know of a fix? Is this a bug?

EDIT: from each environment I have run conda list requests and python -c "import requests; print(requests.__spec__)", with the results below.

Base

# Name                    Version                   Build  Channel
requests                  2.22.0                   py37_0

ModuleSpec(name='requests', loader=<_frozen_importlib_external.SourceFileLoader object at 0x00000284138E7FC8>, origin='%USERPROFILE%\\AppData\\Local\\Continuum\\anaconda3\\envs\\auckland-index\\lib\\site-packages\\requests\\__init__.py', submodule_search_locations=['%USERPROFILE%\\AppData\\Local\\Continuum\\anaconda3\\envs\\auckland-index\\lib\\site-packages\\requests'])

auckland-index

# Name                    Version                   Build  Channel
requests                  2.25.1             pyhd3eb1b0_0

ModuleSpec(name='requests', loader=<_frozen_importlib_external.SourceFileLoader object at 0x00000284138E7FC8>, origin='%USERPROFILE%\\AppData\\Local\\Continuum\\anaconda3\\envs\\auckland-index\\lib\\site-packages\\requests\\__init__.py', submodule_search_locations=['%USERPROFILE%\\AppData\\Local\\Continuum\\anaconda3\\envs\\auckland-index\\lib\\site-packages\\requests'])

EDIT 2: Adding path variables from base environment

['', '%USERPROFILE%\\AppData\\Local\\Continuum\\anaconda3\\envs\\auckland-index\\python37.zip',
 '%USERPROFILE%\\open-data-api',
 '%USERPROFILE%\\Auckland-Index-Update',
 '%USERPROFILE%\\AppData\\Local\\Continuum\\anaconda3\\envs\\auckland-index\\DLLs',
 '%USERPROFILE%\\AppData\\Local\\Continuum\\anaconda3\\envs\\auckland-index\\lib',
 '%USERPROFILE%\\AppData\\Local\\Continuum\\anaconda3\\envs\\auckland-index',
 '%USERPROFILE%',
 '%USERPROFILE%\\AppData\\Local\\Continuum\\anaconda3\\envs\\auckland-index\\lib\\site-packages',
 '%USERPROFILE%\\AppData\\Local\\Continuum\\anaconda3\\envs\\auckland-index\\lib\\site-packages\\locket-0.2.1-py3.7.egg',
 '%USERPROFILE%\\AppData\\Local\\Continuum\\anaconda3\\envs\\auckland-index\\lib\\site-packages\\win32',
 '%USERPROFILE%\\AppData\\Local\\Continuum\\anaconda3\\envs\\auckland-index\\lib\\site-packages\\win32\\lib',
 '%USERPROFILE%\\AppData\\Local\\Continuum\\anaconda3\\envs\\auckland-index\\lib\\site-packages\\Pythonwin',
 '%USERPROFILE%\\AppData\\Local\\Continuum\\anaconda3\\envs\\auckland-index\\lib\\site-packages\\IPython\\extensions',
 '%USERPROFILE%\\.ipython',
 '%USERPROFILE%\\AppData\\Local\\Continuum\\anaconda3\\python37.zip',
 '%USERPROFILE%\\AppData\\Local\\Continuum\\anaconda3\\DLLs',
 '%USERPROFILE%\\AppData\\Local\\Continuum\\anaconda3\\lib',
 '%USERPROFILE%\\AppData\\Local\\Continuum\\anaconda3',
 '%USERPROFILE%\\AppData\\Local\\Continuum\\anaconda3\\lib\\site-packages',
 '%USERPROFILE%\\AppData\\Local\\Continuum\\anaconda3\\lib\\site-packages\\win32',
 '%USERPROFILE%\\AppData\\Local\\Continuum\\anaconda3\\lib\\site-packages\\win32\\lib',
 '%USERPROFILE%\\AppData\\Local\\Continuum\\anaconda3\\lib\\site-packages\\Pythonwin']