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>