evidence: ABC News interviewed Dr. Peter McCullough, a Texas cardiologist, who promotes ivermectin as part of a "multi-drug protocol" aimed at early treatment of COVID-19 outpatients -- despite the FDA and CDC's warning that people should not be taking ivermectin at all for COVID-19 treatment outside of a clinical trial. [...] Advocates of using ivermectin for COVID-19 treatment often cite "dozens" of studies that show benefits of ivermectin in combating COVID-19, but a closer look at the studies shows that some of them have been retracted for flawed or fabricated data and analysis, while many of the other solid randomized trials have shown no benefits. There have been some small studies that did suggest positive effects of ivermectin on treating COVID-19 patients, but no large, rigorous, randomized controlled trial has shown that ivermectin is effective at treating or preventing COVID-19, medical experts say. [...] The general consensus in the medical community now is that there's not enough data to recommend ivermectin for use as a COVID-19 treatment, said Dr. Adrian Hernandez, professor of medicine and vice dean and executive director of Duke Clinical Research Institute, who is leading the largest ivermectin trial ever to see if three existing medications used for other conditions could help in the early treatment of COVID-19 patients outside of the hospital.