Praying that prayer works..

I always find it slightly bemusing why religious people think that prayer is capable of helping anyone except themselves?

As to be expected during a global pandemic, there are a lot of stories and appeals being made in the media and on social channels currently about people who have contracted Covid-19 and whose family and friends go on TV/Radio or post messages about how they are "praying" for their loved one(s). I have experienced loss and trauma myself, many times, and I think I understand the mindset pretty well. I can absolutely understand the desire for support and sympathy during a personal crisis, I understand what that feels like, but I don't need "prayer" for those things I need Human contact and communication. Surely people who actually believe in an omnipotent and omniscient deity realise the contradiction here, if their God truly has those characteristics then the plan is the plan isn't it? If you contract Covid then your God must have planned for you to stand a fraction too close to that teenager in Waitrose at that precise moment to inhale the required amount of virus particles, if not then you have to admit that these kinds of things are purely down to random chance and if so, where does that leave the role of your Deity and your prayer for her to intervene in the plan?