While facing down the COVID-19 pandemic, we are also facing a pandemic of misinformation surrounding COVID-19. This misinformation could be about the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, the COVID-19 disease it causes, or the public health advice given by international organizations and local governments to limit the impact and spread of this disease.

With the spread of misinformation, people tend to take on wrong health care measures, downplay the seriousness of the crisis, or attempt risky and untested ”cures” or ”prevention” methods at home; all of that leading to more harm than good.

This article is a guide for scientists to act as advocates for high quality information in their own networks and to challenge misinformation. Its aim is to maximise the impact of science communication surrounding COVID-19 to make it as widespread and as effective as possible.