andrains

I achieved it by creating a separate widget plugin using wp_query instead of wpdb.
Seemed easier than editing the existing plugin and breaking updatability in the future.

The gist of it is:

 <ul>
				    <?php
				        global $post;
				        $args = array( 
				        	'numberposts' => $dis_posts, 
				        	'supports' => array( 'title', 'editor', 'author', 'thumbnail', 'excerpt', 'comments' ),
				        	'date_query' => array(
						        array(
						            'after' => '4 week ago'
									)
												 ),
							'meta_key' => '_reaction_buttons_0',
							'orderby' => 'meta_value_num',
							'order' => 'DESC'
							
				        	);
				      
				        $myposts = get_posts( $args );
				        foreach( $myposts as $post ) : setup_postdata($post); ?>
				        <li class='topBull'>
					        <div class='topBullImage'>
						        		
								<a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"> <?php the_post_thumbnail(array(100,100));?></a>
					        </div>
					        <div class='topBullTitle'>
					        	<a href="<?php the_permalink(); ?>"> <?php the_title(); ?></a>
					        	<br>
					        	<span class='topBullCount'><?php echo get_post_meta($post->ID, '_reaction_buttons_0', 'meta_value_num'); ?>  </span>
					        </div>
					 
				        </li>
				        <?php endforeach; ?>
				</ul>