Copperheads live in exactly the wooded and edge habitat where people garden, hike and clear brush, and their defence is to freeze rather than flee, relying on banding that matches dead leaves. The result is a high number of contacts that go unnoticed until someone puts a hand or foot in the wrong place.
What follows is usually painful but not life-threatening. Copperhead venom is less potent than that of rattlesnakes or cottonmouths, yields are modest, and a substantial proportion of defensive bites are dry or nearly so. Local swelling and tissue damage are the norm; deaths are recorded only rarely in a country where the species bites thousands of people a year.
The clinical debate is about antivenom rather than survival. Whether antivenom improves functional recovery in typical copperhead bites, given cost and reaction risk, has been argued for years and practice varies between clinicians. Reported bite totals are also soft, since mild cases go unreported and identification by patients is unreliable.