Many people have been buying, indeed hoarding, loo roll as part of their preparations for the advance of Covid-19. Stockpiling toilet paper is a terrible precaution. At least now with the further spread of the virus, Boris Johnson has called on the public to “commit wholeheartedly to a national effort”.

The fundamental challenge for the UK however is that nobody has told the UK population how to prepare for a contingency. And as Covid-19 has demonstrated, in a contingency a critical mass of people needs to know what to do.

Sweden, by contrast, has long had a policy of clearly telling its population about threats and preparedness.

The Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency, the MSB, is Europe’s foremost innovator in population-wide preparedness. It is, for example, currently co-leading (with the Swedish Armed Forces) Sweden’s Total Defence 2020 exercise, and two years ago it published the preparedness brochure If War or Crisis Comes with easy-to-understand advice for the public. “It’s an obligation for citizens to prepare themselves,” the MSB’s director general, Dan Eliasson, told me in an interview.

National security as a whole-of-society effort is not new to Sweden; during the second world war the country – faced with the vastly larger Nazi Germany and its far better equipped armed forces – pioneered “total defence”, which saw the rest of society assisting the armed forces in supporting roles meant to delay the invaders’ progress. During the cold war – and the risk of a potential Soviet invasion – Sweden perfected its total defence system. If War Comes, a brochure on which the new leaflet is based, was part of that effort. In theory total defence was never relinquished, though it was heavily dismantled in the early 2000s. Now, in response to a resurgent Russia and the rise of so-called hybrid warfare, total defence is being rebuilt; the Total Defence 2020 exercise is the first such exercise in 33 years.

What would you do if your everyday life was turned upside down, the MSB’s leaflet asks, and goes on to list things that could happen as a result of a crisis:

The heating stops working. It becomes difficult to prepare and store food. The shops may run out of food and other goods. There is no water in the taps or the toilet. It is not possible to fill up your car. Payment cards and cash machines stop working. Mobile networks and the internet are not working. Public transport and other means of transport are at a standstill. It becomes difficult to obtain medicines and medical equipment.

Equipped with such tips, the UK population would have fared better when Covid-19 began its march through the country. They would have known which items to have at home – think plenty of food and liquids – and would have bought them before the virus became a serious concern.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Anders Tegnell (second left) of Sweden’s public health agency gives an update on coronavirus on Thursday. Photograph: Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP via Getty Images

Sweden is not alone in making the population an active part of crisis preparedness. Lithuania has published a similar brochure. The Tokyo city government has an earthquake guide that features advice for residents, including how to turn off and restore power, which items to have in an emergency bag and how to use a toilet when the water supply is cut off. San Francisco’s emergency preparedness programme, SF72, advises residents how they can fend for themselves for 72 hours during an earthquake – because that’s what they will be expected to do. Judging from property prices in Tokyo and San Francisco, residents are not alarmed. Latvia, in turn, is rolling out a national defence curriculum in all its secondary schools, teaching them about threats to the country and their role in keeping the country safe.

Italy’s initial crisis response to Covid-19 was clearly inadequate. Yet in other contingencies, including earthquakes, Italy’s servizio civile – voluntary, unarmed national service which teaches emergency response – has also proved invaluable.

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The MSB didn’t just put If War or Crisis Comes online: to make sure a maximum number of people read it, the agency sent it to every household in the country. “Luckily a large chunk of the population saw the brochure as an act of compassion and concern from the government,” Eliasson told me. In the UK, the fright factor has been the government’s main hesitation when it comes to engaging the public. About a year ago, when I suggested to a group of UK government officials that Britain could issue a guide similar to If War or Crisis Comes, they dismissed the idea, arguing that it would cause panic. In Sweden, however, MSB surveys after the brochure’s publication showed that a massive 90% of the people were aware of it. A high percentage said it had impacted their thinking and behaviour. Only a quarter said that the content had frightened them.

The Swedes are not better or more civic-minded than the British; with Russia in close proximity they’re simply more attuned to national security threats. In the UK, by contrast, more than two generations of citizens haven’t had to worry about national security. But that will change. Even when Covid-19 has finally ebbed out, the need for public engagement won’t go away. Other threats – be they viruses, extreme weather events, disinformation campaigns or devastating cyber-attacks – will present themselves. Even outside the EU, the UK could draw preparedness inspiration from some of its European friends.