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i thought i remembered studies where people who know they are being prayed for have worse outcomes than those that don't. The guess being some kind of performance anxiety. Couldn't track down the details, so perhaps just my own misrememberance.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16569567/ Conclusions: Intercessory prayer itself had no effect on complication-free recovery from CABG, but certainty of receiving intercessory prayer was associated with a higher incidence of complications.

However, in my search I also found studies that showed prayer to be effective.

Replication is important. Statistically, effects can be enormously correlated in one study, yet have no correlation in many other studies.
An factual anecdote isn't worth much. A fictional anecdote regardless of how popular it is, is even less valuable.