Chomsky released from hospital, his wife denies reports of death

American intellectual and famous linguist Noam Chomsky was discharged from a hospital in Sao Paolo on Tuesday and will continue unspecified treatment at home, the facility said.

The 95-year-old’s wife, Valeria Wasserman, had previously rejected media reports about Chomsky’s death, saying in an email to AFP: “That is false. He is fine.”

The newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo reported that Chomsky was recently admitted to a hospital in the city after suffering a stroke a year ago and has since had difficulty speaking and moving the right side of his body.

The Chomskys have been resident in Brazil since 2015.

By Tuesday, Chomsky’s death was already a trending topic on X, as there were numerous false reports about his death. Jacobin and The New Statesman published obituaries for Chomsky, with the former changing the headline from “We Remember Noam Chomsky” to “Let’s Celebrate Noam Chomsky.”

The New Statesman completely removed the essay by former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis. The Brazilian news site Diario do Centro do Mundo also removed its article about Chomsky’s death and published a correction.

Chomsky first became known in the 1950s with the revolutionary theory that the ability to form structured language is innate.

Noam Chomsky is known to millions for his criticism of US foreign policy and a range of issues from workers’ rights to the environment.

He taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for decades. In 2017, he moved to the College of Social & Behavioral Sciences at the University of Arizona in Tucson.