Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam on Tuesday called protesters demonstrating against his shelter-in-place order "selfish," accusing them of potentially endangering the lives of health care providers by refusing to practice social distancing measures.

While Northam, a physician, said he empathized with protesters’ eagerness to reopen parts of the economy shuttered in response to the coronavirus pandemic, the governor maintained he wanted a safe return to normalcy.


“I'm just as anxious as anybody else to open up our economy,” Northam said in an interview on MSNBC, noting that he is a small-business owner himself. “We don't need protesters to encourage me and anybody else to ease these restrictions.”