Anthony Fauci, the infectious disease expert, needs to "move along" because he has kept America's economy bottled up too long and isn't considering the impact of continued quarantines, Rep. Andy Biggs said on Monday.

Amplifying the growing conservative hostility toward Fauci, the Arizona Republican who also is a member of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, said Fauci has helped manage the coronavirus pandemic, but economic suffering must be taken into account.

"I think it's time ... for Dr. Fauci to move along," Biggs said in an interview on Monday with KFYI-AM (550). "I mean, he shouldn't have a seat at the table. He shouldn't be making decisions that are basically impacting this country in a way that we haven't even considered.

"I mean, he has said he has not considered economic or societal or social fallout for his remedy for the epidemic. And if that's the case, I think he gets some credit for where we stand today, but I think it's time for him to move on."

Biggs' broadside comes a day after President Donald Trump retweeted a call to fire Fauci after Fauci said this weekend that lives could have been saved if the nation had shut down sooner in response to the threat of COVID-19.

Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has emerged from the extended national quarantine as the most authoritative medical voice in the Trump administration's efforts to grapple with the pandemic.

He said on Sunday that the economy should have a "rolling reentry" into more normal life, based on regional conditions.

Fauci's continued medical caution has clearly grated on the president, who has been criticized for being slow to take action in the U.S. against the coronavirus and has publicly hinted that he wants a speedy reopening of the nation's businesses.

Trump is also facing growing political pressure as the pandemic has shredded his top campaign talking point: a strong national economy. The New York Times on Sunday painted Trump as having squandered time and ignored warnings before the new coronavirus landed ashore, making its impact more deadly.

Biggs, who heads the House Freedom Caucus that proved Trump's most reliable defenders during his impeachment, is now in the same camp as Trump on the economic fallout of the quarantine.

"This has basically emasculated the United States' economy," Biggs said. "And part of it is because Dr. Fauci took what I would call a generic meat-cleaver approach to this thing, where everybody's going to be basically isolated. We're going to close businesses."

Some Republicans, such as Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., have resisted the push against Fauci.

Responding to the popular idea to fire Fauci, Rubio tweeted, "For what?"

Rubio said China misled the world on COVID-19, most governments were slow to respond and that the goal now is to avoid repeating problems.

Asked when he would advocate reopening businesses, Biggs was blunt.

"This morning. Look, if you've got a retail shop and you open up there isn't anybody in Arizona, nobody is going to stop you," he said.

"You should be exercising wise social distancing mechanisms, let only so many people into your store. People need to stand back behind the lines. I mean, look, we can do this in grocery stores. We seem to be doing it fine in grocery stores. Why couldn't you do it in a furniture store or bike shop, a flower shop or a bookstore?"

Not everyone would agree that grocery stores have operated without consequence during the pandemic. The Washington Post reports that at least 41 grocery store workers have died nationally.

Reach the reporter Ronald J. Hansen at ronald.hansen@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4493. Follow him on Twitter @ronaldjhansen.

Support local journalism. Subscribe to azcentral.com today.