Numerous video clips surfaced on Twitter over the last few days that, according to a top research organization, shows Iranians licking Islamic shrines believed to be infected with coronavirus to prove that they are not afraid of the epidemic, some declaring that they hope they are infected.

The Middle East Media Research Institute, a non-partisan organization that specializes in tracking down extremist content online, highlighted several of the clips that allegedly showed Iranians licking the shrine.

“Iranians have posted several videos on social media, featuring devout Shiites licking holy shrines in defiance of the coronavirus. In some of the videos, worshippers say they are licking the shrines in order to infect themselves, thus protecting future pilgrims to the shrines from contracting the virus,” the Middle East Media Research Institute reported. “On March 1, 2020, a pilgrim posted a video of himself licking the steel bars protecting the window of a Shiite shrine.”

“If there are diseases or microbes there, let them enter our bodies and the bodies of our children, so that nothing happens to the pilgrims visiting Imam Reza,” one of the men who licks a shrine states.

WATCH:

Iranians Lick Shiite Shrines in Defiance of Coronavirus Threats; Iranian-Islamic Medicine Expert: I Will Cure It pic.twitter.com/K39rZb55oe — MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) March 1, 2020

The video clips surfaced around the same time that Iranian health officials have given a vastly different account of the dire situation from the coronavirus in the Islamic nation.

The Iranian government has downplayed the virus, stating that only a few dozen people had died from it while a few hundred had been infected.

Some Iranian government officials have come forward and said that the government is lying about how bad the situation is, while the BBC and a New York Times correspondent reported Thursday that well over 200 people have died and up to 15,000 people had been infected.

TRANSCRIPT [According to a transcription by MEMRI]: