We hope Virginia officials won’t be swayed by the small, but noisy group of protesters pushing for a reopening of businesses, schools and other public and private facilities in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

They are a blindly selfish and unschooled lot who ignore social distancing guidelines and refuse to wear masks when out in public despite the guidance of learned epidemiologists, scientists and medical experts who continue to urge people to stay at home to protect the health and lives of themselves and others.

As so many families in Virginia, the nation and around the globe have sadly learned, COVID-19 is a virus that must be taken seriously. As of Wednesday, the coronavirus infection has taken the lives of 178,845 people around the world, with more than 45,300 deaths in the United States and more than 826,200 confirmed cases.

In Virginia where less than 1 percent of the population has been tested for the virus, we have experienced 9,630 positive cases of COVID-19, 1,581 hospitalizations and 324 deaths, according to state health department data.

State officials credit the quarantine that has blanketed the state since March 24 with slowing the spread of the virus. Gov. Ralph S. Northam, a physician, issued the executive order closing schools statewide for the remainder of the academic year and all non-essential businesses. He also banned gatherings of more than 10 people.

There is no question that the order has impacted the lives of all people in ways big and small, but it has saved lives. The failure of governors in South Dakota and Iowa to shut down businesses in those states has led to a dismal situation for workers and their families at meatpacking plants.

More than 700 workers at the Smithfield Foods pork processing plant in Sioux Falls, S.D., were infected with COVID-19 – the largest outbreak in that state – before officials from the Smithfield, Va.-based company shut the plant down. Company CEO Kenneth M. Sullivan, in an April 12 news release, lectured more about the detrimental effect the plant’s closure would have on the nation’s meat supply, grocery stores and livestock farmers than on the health and safety of the 3,700 people employed there.

“We have a stark choice as a nation: We are either going to produce food or not, even in the face of COVID-19,” he said, as though pork products are essential food for the country.

In Iowa, coronavirus outbreaks at Tyson Foods pork plants and Tama beef plants have contributed to a major surge in cases in that state as hundreds of workers toiling in close proximity to one another have become sick and raised the state’s death toll.

If the almighty dollar trumps health and human lives in the United States, the epicenter of capitalism, then this nation will continue to be plagued by this pandemic.

We urge our readers — and all Virginians — to continue to heed the advice of the scientists and medical experts who are not guided by the political whims of the know-nothing occupant of the White House and the misinformed who follow him.

The science, Gov. Northam has said, will dictate when the stay-at-home order should be lifted. Until that time comes, please stay home, wear a mask when you go out for essential trips for food and medicine, practice social distancing, wash your hands frequently and disinfect all frequently used surfaces.

Be safe. Be well.