Former Congressman Ron Paul has called on President Trump to fire Dr. Anthony Fauci, the administration’s senior scientific advisor on the coronavirus task force.

Paul, who has regularly expressed his reservations over allowing the government to enforce a lockdown, says Fauci needs to be stopped before he is given “total control” over the American people.

“He should be fired, but if you don’t do it in the literal sense, the people have to fire him,” Paul said, adding “They have to fire him by saying ‘he’s a fraud.’”

“The plan that they have is when things are getting back to normal, people can return to their work, and they do things, and go to the golf course if they get a stamp of approval,” Paul continued.

“Your liberties are there if you get a proper stamp from the government. It’s an excuse to have total control over the people,” Paul urged.

Fauci Should Be Fired If Not By Trump, Then By The American People Watch the whole show: https://t.co/R0BxsKHghJ pic.twitter.com/s66hlzgPrK — Ron Paul (@RonPaul) April 9, 2020

Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said this week that Americans probably should never shake hands again.

“When you gradually come back, you don’t jump into it with both feet. You say, what are the things you could still do and still approach normal? One of them is absolute compulsive hand-washing. The other is you don’t ever shake anybody’s hands.” Fauci told the Wall Street Journal.

“I don’t think we should ever shake hands ever again, to be honest with you. Not only would it be good to prevent coronavirus disease; it probably would decrease instances of influenza dramatically in this country,” Fauci added.

Fauci, who has warned that the virus could kill up to 200,000 Americans, previously said that the United States will not come out of lockdown until there are no “new cases” of coronavirus.

It was an about turn from the doctor’s earlier downplaying of the virus, when he initially claimed that COVID-19 was comparable to a bad flu.

Some have warned that Fauci, as well as his task force colleague Dr. Deborah Birx, both have questionable big money conflicts of interest where solutions to the coronavirus pandemic are concerned.