Maryland scholars on Monday alternately described President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the U.S. Food and Drug Administration — Dr. Marty Makary, a Johns Hopkins researcher, surgeon and author — as a “courageous leader” and a “reasonable choice,” who nevertheless espouses some “worrisome” views.

President-elect Trump has picked Marty Makary, a Johns Hopkins’s surgeon who has espoused contrarian views about the COVID-19 pandemic, to lead the Federal Drug Administration. Makary is a surgical oncologist at Johns Hopkins University and an author.

The nominee, a surgeon at Johns Hopkins, has criticized the use of pesticides on food and the industry turning against “natural fat.”