INTRODUCTION: The Istituto Superiore di Sanita (ISS) has been asked for rapid technical and scientific advice to the State and Regions during Sars-CoV-2 pandemic preparedness. METHODS: An ad hoc Working Group on Scientific Literature updates (WG SL) was set up at ISS (March-May 2020) to screen pre-prints and peer reviewed papers from arXiv, medRxiv, bioRxiv, and Pubmed to provide a real time knowledge and empirical evidence addressed to health-workers. RESULTS: The WG SL screened a total of 4,568 pre-prints and 15,590 peer reviewed papers, delivered as daily summary report of pre-print selection for ISS President activity in the National Scientific Technical Committee framework and a weekly open access publication (COVID Contents) on peer-reviewed papers of interest for health professionals, monitored by a satisfaction questionnaire. CONCLUSIONS: Promoting heath literacy, with a cross-cutting approach is a powerful heritage of Public Health Institutes and a proven effective non pharmacological intervention.