That was my suspicion.
While you describe the time of attachment as shrinking, I thought it was going the other way (from instant transmission out to 24 hours); I never knew they had used a 48- and 72-hour window in the past.
I’m kidna sure they had 72 at one point- but definitely that had 48- I don’t think they really know- they were saying at one time it took that long for the ‘spirocette’ (sp?) to work it’s way from the innards of the tick to the bloodstream of host- but now they’ve changed that-